Tuesday, February 2, 2016

San Jose Convention Center Expansion and Hotel

There was an ill-fated expansion of the San Jose Convention Center planned in the late 90s and early 2000s. Several years after that project failed, a temporary blue-and-white tent went built behind the Convention Center known as South Hall. It is easily one of the ugliest structures Downtown, but serves its purpose as an 80,000 SQFT overflow space for large conventions.

San Jose officials want to take down this monster and build a proper expansion of the center along with a new full-service high-rise hotel. I think we can all agree that would be a big improvement for this space. However, the main complication is that the land is now owned by the Redevelopment Agency's "Successor Agency" and acquisition might be complicated. If San Jose can get rights to the building, it will then cost about a million dollars to tear it down and get the site ready for future development.